27 Apr 2012

Liverpool target Shinji Kagawa could be on the way out of Borussia Dortmund this summer, and the club's manager, Jurgen Klopp seems resigned to losing the Japanese international, who recently revealed that he favours a move to the Premier League.

Liverpool have been linked with the goalscoring midfielder several times over the last year, and Kagawa - who confirmed recently that he was in negotiations to extend his contract - can leave the Bundesliga club for free in 2013.

Sporting Director Michael Zorc told Bild last week that the 23-year-old is 'flirting with clubs in England and Spain'. Kagawa also admitted that he knew that foreign clubs had 'asked about' him but insisted that he didn't think it was 'the right time' to leave Germany'.

Things may have changed after Dortmund's recent Bundesliga win though. According to Kicker magazine, the German club has given Kagawa till the end of the month to sign a new deal, with Zorc claiming:

"It's about planning for the future of the club. Other positions are involved too. We need security"

Dortmund Manager, Jurgen Klopp, added:

"If Shinji leaves, life goes on. After all, it's not like we had planned on playing an identical line-up for the next 25 years."

The €15m-rated attacking midfielder - dubiously dubbed the 'Asian Messi' by some - has grabbed 16 goals and 7 assists for Dortmund this season, improving on his tally of 12 goals last season.

What do yo think? Should Liverpool pursue Kagawa? Would he settle into the Premier League?

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16 comments:

Kagawa is a class act ! He's Tevez, without the attitude, and the Duracell Bunny all rolled into one. He would be a great signing from a financial aspect as well. Liverpool FC already have a huge following in the Far East and this guy would further enhance our standing. he fits all the criteria as required by FSG. Go get him !

the 'asian messi'??? sign him up NOW!!!!!! after all we signed the 'new zidane' in bruno cheyrou!! and look how well he did. charlie adam was labelled a 'footballer', they got that wrong. i wouldn't even label him a 'food boiler',for fear of him being abjectly sh*te at that too.

Signing Kagawa for even £15 to £20m would make sense (obviously lower would be better) because of the further commercial potential this would give us in the Asian markets. I wouldn't be surprised to find out his image is used to endorse and advertise allsorts in just the Japanese markets. The return on investment for this fact alone should make it a no-brainer.

The other big plus point is the fact that he can actually play attacking football better than most of our current midfield.

Standard Chartered would also be very happy as they have expressed a desire from early on for Liverpool to buy an Asian player so they too can exploit commercial endorsement and advertising rights for his image in the Asian-Pacific markets.

Thinking on it further, Kagawa should be a definate purchase as the potential money he could generate for us might be the difference in us having the purchase power to buy £30m players once the financial fair play rules come into force.

Why not go for Honda too while we're at it! He would arguably settle quicker given his age and experience and only be a massive aid for Kagawa settling and playing well.

Couple that with the fact that he is already worth bucket loads commercially, he's a ready-made player with experience at the top level and, given his age, it isn't beyond the realms of fantasy that we may only keep him on the wage bill for 3 years - Then this to me seems like it would be another no-brainer for the club commercially and on the pitch.

It sounds great to have a player of Kagawa's caliber in LFC. Folks please pardon me for sounding negative, I really don't see why will Kagawa leave Dortmund, Bundesliga champion for 2 consecutive seasons, for LFC. We have a no-show in the Champions League for 3 seasons including the next. Also, if Kagawa really signs for LFC, where will he be in the pecking order of midfielders, behind SG, JH, CA?